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Ask Slashdot: Linux Distro For Hybrid Laptop?

Posted by Soulskill on from the half-man-half-penguin dept.

Steve Parrish writes: I needed a new laptop and found a great deal on an Asus Transformer TP500L. It's one of the laptops where you can flip the screen back and use it as a tablet. I'd like to replace Windows 8.1, and I'm having a difficult time finding a Linux distro that will work on it. I'm familiar with Mint, SolydX, and older Ubuntu versions. I tried the latest Ubuntu with Unity and didn't like it, but the OS installed with only a few minor issues. Has anyone tried any other distros on a hybrid laptop with a touchscreen? I've used Linux for several years, but I'm no guru -- I'm not comfortable with the command line or other advanced workings. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

9 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Advanced Workings.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does anyone else remember a time when getting the X Window System to work properly was considered advanced? And now the command line is considered advanced... I guess I'm getting old.

    1. Re:Advanced Workings.... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does anyone else remember a time when the rolling own your kernel modules for devices to work properly was considered advanced? And now almost everything works out of the box. I guess I'm getting old.

    2. Re:Advanced Workings.... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Does anyone else remember a time when the rolling own your kernel modules for devices to work properly was considered advanced? And now almost everything works out of the box. I guess I'm getting old.

      Thast was great when just getting the thing to work at all was the goal.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  2. Your use cases by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let your uses dictate your choice. What are you going to use this device for?

    Email? Browsing the web? Programming? Watching movies? Games? Making the best of your time in a subway? What other devices do you already have? Is this going to be your primary computer? Is power consumption a consideration? Etc.

    I'm afraid that there is currently no good one-size-fits-all solution. Whatever you decide, it will have to be a compromise.

  3. Or just leave Windows on it by SailorSpork · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about leaving Windows 8.1 on it? The device you have is the very device 8.1 was designed around. Linux will be clunky compared to it.

    1. Re: Or just leave Windows on it by LLKrisJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why?

      The consensus here seems to be that none of the OS/Linux alternatives seem to be terribly good on these kinds of hybrid devices.

      Maybe 8.1 is not perfect, sure... But maybe MS didn't do such a bad job either trying to find middle ground or a reasonable UX on such a large group of devices, from full desktop machines to hybrids to phones.

      The definitely did a better job scaling their OS than Apple for instance.

      For that, in spite of some of their shortcomings, I think MS deserves some credit.

      Of course, it is always easy to say that product X or Y from company so and so is s**t but if you are so clever and opinionated, why not come up with something better then?

  4. Trivial question not deserve a discussion post by AchilleTalon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is /. becoming some kind of stackoverflow.com? I mean, this kind of question doesn't deserve to make its path to /., it is a trivial question with a very limited number of choices and not really distro related, rather than GUI related with three choices.

    --
    Achille Talon
    Hop!
  5. Re:Touchscreen + Linux... by wisnoskij · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have been using Android for over a year now, and that is a horrible idea. It is a seriously broken OS. Completely unstable, with horrendous updates that break and completely change functionality every month or two.

    And that is not even mentioning how that would completely ruin the hybrid aspect of it. You could never use it as a fully functioning laptop, and everything about it would be designed for a screen 10% the size.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  6. Have you tried some live linux images? by LesFerg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are you able to boot from a USB stick? I found this tool quite useful for trying out a variety of live-linux iso's on a usb drive:
    yumi

    It provides some useful links to download what is needed to try out a whole bunch of different distros. You can also stack a number of different distros on the same usb drive and choose which one to boot from at startup.

    Personally I have been using Debian for quite a few years now, gave ubuntu a brief try but wasn't too happy with it.
    I have installed Mint on virtual recently and it really does look as good as people here have stated. Mint would be my final recommendation too.

    --
    If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.